Light from a stone

This new series of works by Paul Seftel explores fields of color in mineral based topographical surfaces. Finding metaphysical echoes of form, the relationship between mining the self and the mined earth comes together in an elemental reaction of materials. Natural process induced and accelerated, a cosmological, human and geological connection is forged and orchestrated with sympathetic architectural materials. An interior measurement of environmental sensitivity is found, suspended as a construct of painting.

Combining ancient fresco formulas with modern mediums and contemporary exploration- marble dust, quartz and limestone surfaces drink in the metal pigments. The process is a battlefield of physical labor, a reductive process ultimately, in which surfaces are built and layered, and elements are uncovered and reacted towards. The wet ground where internal actions stimulate the materials create the captured moments as both force and nature. All these whirling interactions, within us and the space are at work within the form. Elemental explosions and peaceful shimmering nebulae drift through fields of mineral color where presence lives beyond the surface of the canvas. What remains is a found form revealed through layers over time. Sometimes it happens in days or weeks, other times years, the unpredictability of finding form within chaos keeps its secrets close.

Color becomes a cloak between visible and invisible worlds, revealing and testing the eye and imagination. Pushed to the ends of the spectrum and back again, a changing play of light shifts within the series - from white phosphorescent pieces, through silver into the purple Pthalo blue green enigma. A color bridge is being created within the wider arc of Seftel’s work, a trans dimensional pathway of sorts. With a closer perspective, deep inner space and outer space, color and form, and mind and matter, may conceivably be seen and understood as one and the same.